Workflows are business processes that are designed to achieve a specific purpose. They can be carried out by a single person or piece of equipment, a group, or a whole organization. In the context of document management, one type of workflow is a process by which one or more physical or electronic documents flow among people and/or groups or people for review, editing or other actions. This typically involves documents being distributed with different people responsible for creating, updating, reviewing, and approving the document.
When one or more people who are assigned a task in a document workflow are not responding quickly, those individuals can create bottlenecks in the workflow. In such a situation, an alternate person may be available to perform the task. However, if the content of the document is sensitive or confidential, then the disclosure of the document to the alternate person may not be permitted. Thus, the alternate reviewer may not be able to resolve the bottleneck.
This document describes systems and methods that present solutions to the problems discussed above, and which may also provide additional benefits.